Closings in California and Elsewhere

Collectors Bookstore, which has been selling movie memorabilia in Hollywood since 1965, closed its doors and went Internet-only half a dozen years ago. Now it is shutting down completely and auctioning off its remaining stock.

I shopped at Collectors in the late '70s and '80s, at three different locations. It wasn't my favorite movie memorabilia store, as its prices were higher than its competitors, but I found some wonderful treasures there. Thanks to Collectors I added to my extensive stills collections from SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS and THE SOUND OF MUSIC, and I acquired other neat odds and ends there as well.

Over in Long Beach, Ray Bradbury, the best-known regular customer of Acres of Books, has paid his last visit to the store. The store's location has been sold to a redevelopment agency.

Bradbury said, "I love this place. I love the smell of it. When it used to rain...I'd come to Long Beach, I'd come here to the Acres of Books and I'd go in the back."

I've been in the back myself when it was raining, and it was definitely a memorable experience. The back of the store is sort of a warehouse tucked onto the building. There are skylights but not much light. You'd hear the rain pounding away on the skylights, and it would be sort of gray and magical while you browsed the cavernous stacks. We were lucky to have the store while it lasted.

(Previous Acres of Books posts: April 7 and April 22, 2008.)

News from across the country: Highly regarded White Lily Flour will continue to be produced, but owner Smucker's is moving production from Tennessee to the Midwest.

The New York Times and Atlanta Journal-Constitution report on concerns about whether the flour's quality will remain the same.

My family members in North Carolina have sent me White Lily -- as well as other Southern flours -- which I enjoy using to make biscuits and pancakes. White Lily is wonderful stuff.